by Mike Lopresti, USA TODAY Sports

by Mike Lopresti, USA TODAY Sports

The next time David Stern gets into a discussion about age limits for the NBA, what will speak louder than Nerlens Noel's scream?

Nothing.

It might swing the debate. It should. It would be hard to argue otherwise, as they wheeled Noel away Tuesday night, his knee wrecked, his future as the probable 2013 No. 1 draft pick clouded.

Bad dream, bad rule. If only it were that simple.

The teenage phenoms spend a season with college basketball because they have to, hoping and praying not to take a wrong step. Please, don't get hurt and have everything change. But sometimes, they do. Even at Kentucky. Noel's cry of agony apparently bounced around the Florida arena, and you could understand coach John Calipari when he said he felt sick.

This is when life seems not fair, or at least the NBA age-limit rule portion of it. Had this happened to Noel in the service of a professional employer, the pain would be no less agonizing, but the money would already be in the bank. Now, who knows?

To be sure, knees get fixed, and players come back to make enough cash to fill an oil tanker. Nerlens Noel - noted shot-swatter and 6-10 athlete - will not be without professional suitors, if Tuesday was his last Kentucky game. And he does have insurance, as allowed by the NCAA. But still, this can't help on draft day.

The logic seems so clear. It is not right to force them into harm's way in college at the point of a rule, when they could secure their family's well-being with a signature. If they want to go pro, let them go pro. Tennis players do not have to wait to be 19. Violinists do not have to wait.

Nerlens Noel just become the poster player to dump the age rule.

(While also disproving the theory that Calipari would take over the world with waves of talented freshmen. With seven defeats, Kentucky might not even make the NCAA tournament. If this were chess, the Wildcats just lost their queen).

And yet, before we make his torn ACL exhibit A and rest the case, note that the regulation as it exists is not without its own logic. The open door from high school to the NBA had its own casualties.

Stern has often said this is not a social issue, but rather trying to give his teams more time to evaluate, instead of pulling out their checkbooks and throwing fortunes at 18-year-olds. OK, we get that. The commissioner of the NBA runs a business.

But there is something else. The damage done to the impatient and ill-prepared - kids swallowed up by the NBA's demands or its pressures or its lifestyle - does not come with nationally televised cries of pain. They are not on highlights at 11. But they happen. Careers are scuttled and can't be fixed with surgery.

Might even one year in college help? For many. Is it worth the risk, and the restraint of trade? There is the crux of the question, and the guess is most people will say no.

Indeed, it is hard to justify holding a man back because he is a basketball player, when he would not be held back if he had the skills to be a professional plumber. But if we stick to that philosophy, ready to kill off the NFL rule that mandates three years away from high school before being eligible?

Ready, in this concussion-wary age, to see teenagers bash heads with the Baltimore Ravens?

No? Whatever happened to the right to work, or does it not come with shoulder pads? Many times, life is about knowing where to draw the line.

So this issue is not uncomplicated. Nobody need pretend an anything-goes system is risk-free or cost-free, because it isn't. But the NBA age rule doesn't pass the smell test. Especially not at the moment.